Taking place Monday 5 and Wednesday 7 February, these webinars will introduce and explain the main proposed changes to this standard. There will also be an open question and answer session – make sure you register now so you don’t miss out.

What is group certification?

Group certification is a mechanism through which groups of small-forest landholders can organize themselves, pool their resources and work together to achieve certification. This makes certification accessible for small-forest owners.

The key to successful group certification is to balance the need for robust implementation of our requirements with the need to be as resource efficient as possible.

What has changed?

Group certification works through a combination of internal and external auditing. As not every smallholder is audited, costs are substantially lower, helping make certification accessible. However, this means that internal auditing must work flawlessly.

The revised standard will provide an innovative framework for internal monitoring and auditing in certified groups with a chapter on ‘performance evaluation’. This will include improved requirements for internal auditing, such as risk based sampling groups and minimum sample size, as well as strengthening the management system of the group itself.

By strengthening the internal auditing process, we can be even more assured that all forest owners within a group are managing their forests in line with the requirements and small-forest owners can continue to benefit from affordable certification.

Public consultations

This public consultation is one in a series of upcoming consultations as the PEFC Standards Revision process moves into its next phase. Over the next months, enquiry draft versions for several of the standards under revision will be ready for public consultations. Stay tuned!